OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
Dispatch
3/23/06
3/23/06
OSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Buckeyes live and learn, look forward to next season
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The end arrived for the Ohio State women’s basketball team late Tuesday night in Mackey Arena with the cold, sudden shock of a fall through thin ice and into a pond.
The Buckeyes, who entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Albuquerque Regional, were dunked and dismissed in the second round by eighth-seeded Boston College in a 79-69 upset.
In losing, the Big Ten regular-season and tournament champions became the first top seed not to reach the Sweet 16 since Stanford and Texas Tech in 1998.
"We just got outworked," OSU junior center Jessica Davenport said. "We didn’t execute our offense. We didn’t execute our defense."
The defensive lapses allowed the Eagles (21-11) to build an early lead.
"In the first four minutes of the game, we weren’t getting stops on defense," sophomore guard Marscilla Packer said. "We made mistakes that we don’t usually make and they came back to haunt us."
Spotty offense prevented the Buckeyes (29-3) from making a run after they took a 48-46 lead with 10:47 left in the game. While OSU sputtered, Boston College’s Kindyll Dorsey started the decisive run with three quick three-point field goals.
"The turning point in the game came when we took the lead," OSU coach Jim Foster said. "We had an opportunity to come down and score. We threw the ball into a guard on the block.
"When you have been behind the whole game and you crawl back and get the lead, that’s something you need to value. You need to get a quality shot that time down the floor and we didn’t."
Late in the game, the Buckeyes lost junior guard Brandie Hoskins to an ankle injury. She was to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging to determine the extent of the damage.
The team returned to Columbus by bus from West Lafayette yesterday with Foster already planning for next season.
He knows what he is losing in senior forward Debbie Merrill and senior guards Kim Wilburn, Ashley Allen, Candace Dark and Tia Battle.
"Debbie Merrill came in and gave us a degree of toughness," Foster said.
"Kim and Ashley, while not natural point guards, did a yeoman’s job of managing the position.
"Tia and Candace were role players, but role players have great value to a basketball team, especially ones that understand it and know how to give the effort necessary . . . when they are called upon."
The recruiting class, which includes transfer guard Ashlee Trebilcock, will have an opportunity to play.
"I think there is going to be a lot of competition for Debbie’s position," said Foster, who has been named a finalist for the Naismith coach of the year award.
He listed juniors-to-be Alice Jamen and Tam Riley, sophomore-to-be Star Allen and incoming freshman Lesslee Mason-Cox from Cincinnati Princeton as possibilities.
Andrea Walker, a 6-5 freshman of West Allegheny, Pa., will provide size inside to complement Davenport, the two-time Big Ten player of the year.
Freshman point guard Maria Moeller of Marion Local in Maria Stein and guards Cherise Daniel of Eastmoor Academy and Shavelle Little of Huron in Ann Arbor, Mich., already are slotted into roles.
"Trebilcock is a very good player," Foster said. "She’ll be eligible as soon as the second quarter starts. Maria Moeller is going to have to come in here and be ready to play. More often than not, kids today are.
"Shavelle Little has got to bring the energy from the defensive perspective that Kim and Ashley gave us. Cherise is long like Tia Battle and a very good shooter. They’re going to have to earn their minutes. But I just think we’re going to be solid."
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Thursday, March 23, 2006